Like local NGOs and Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International on Tuesday described Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians as “apartheid”, treated as an “inferior racial group” according to this human rights organization whose remarks were castigated by the Jewish state.
“Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across these territories clearly smack of apartheid,” Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard told a news conference in Jerusalem shortly. after the publication of a report on this subject on Tuesday. “Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank or Israel, Palestinians are treated as a racially inferior group and systematically disenfranchised,” she added.
However, the NGO says it wants to avoid comparisons with South Africa.
Amnesty accused of anti-Semitism
The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapid, strongly rejected the allegations of the NGO, considering that it “reported the lies spread by terrorist organizations”. As of Monday, the minister had asked Amnesty to “withdraw” its report.
“Amnesty was once an esteemed organization (…). Today it is the exact opposite,” he said. “Israel is not perfect, but it is a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism.”
And accuse him of anti-Semitism. “I don’t like to say that if Israel weren’t a Jewish state no one at Amnesty would dare to attack it, but I don’t see any other explanation,” he said.
“A criticism of the practices of the State of Israel is absolutely not a form of anti-Semitism. Amnesty strongly denounces anti-Semitism,” defends Agnès Callamard, who also rejected the allegations that the NGO “stigmatized” Israel, recalling that it notably published reports on Iran, Israel’s pet peeve.
Satisfaction of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas
The Palestinian Authority, which controls part of the occupied West Bank, hailed Amnesty for its “courageous and just” work on behalf of the Palestinian people.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which is in power in the Gaza Strip and considered terrorist by Washington and the European Union, applauded the “professionalism” of the NGO.
For his part, the spokesman for American diplomacy Ned Price said “reject the idea that the acts of Israel constitute apartheid”, while ensuring “to take seriously all accusations of human rights violations”.